Divan-bed.



H. F. SOWLE.

` plvAN BED. APPLICATION FILED APR.25. |917` Patented Mal'. 4,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l H. F. SOWLE.

DIVAN BEDl APPLICATION FILED APR.25. I9II.

Patented Mar. 4,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 H. F. SGWLE.

DIVAN BED.

A-IPLIcATIaII FILED APII.25. Ien.

Patented Mar. 4,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3 f an 1:. .anar n. sowLE, or nvnnnrnrrnssncnnsnrrs.

, niv-BED.

Specification of Letters Patent.

`Partented Mar..- 4, 1919.

Application led April 25, 1917. Serial No. 164,379.

To allfwtom z't may concern.'

Be 1t known that I, HERBERT F. SoWLE, a

citizen of the United States,`residing at Everett, inthe county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Divan-Beds, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to combine a folding bed with articles of furniture of the sort known as divans and ,davenport sofas, etc. My main and primary ob- .Ject is to provide such a foldin bed structure as w1ll cause the greater dimension of the bed when extended to be perpendicular, that is transverse, to the longer dimension of the sofa when folded or collapsed. The fullment of this purpose enables a full len h bed to be comprised, when folded, wit in the limits of a sofa, or divan, or fthe like, which is shorter than the full length of a normal full grown person. The accomplishment of this purpose involves the makin of a folding bed bottom in three sections so t atY the extended bed, which is long enough to accommodate the normal adult, may be folded into a compass from front to rear not greater than the standard width of a sofa, the limits ofwhich are fixed by the necessity of making it a comfortable seat. In this description the terms ends and sides as applied to the folded up or com- --pacted sofa or divan indicate directions transverse to the dimensions indicated by the terms length and width with respect to the extended bed; these terms being used in connection .with the sofa or divan and the.

bed, respectively, with their common signifi"- cance when applied to sofas and beds which are separate from one another. Other objects are concerned with the mechanical features of the folding divan bed whereby ease and eiciency of operation are secured, together with strength and compactness of structure.

Having thus set forth the general objects of the invention I will proceed now to a detailed description of one embodiment of the same shown in the drawings which accompany this application. In the drawings,

Figure 1 isa front elevation of the divan bed or sofaI bed referred to, the same being in the closed or folded up condition.

Fig. 2 isa cross section of the same on` Fig. 4 yis a longitudinal section of the bed in the condition shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section showing the parts of the bed in a position intermediate the closed up and fully open positions, this being .one of the positions assumed by the parts when in course of being opened or closed.

The same referencecharacters indicate the same parts in all the figures.

The outer frame of the sofa bed, which also may be called the stationary frame, is composed of two end pieces 11, 12 and transverse pieces o-r beams 13 and 14, both of which are at the back 4of the stationary section, the beam 14 being at the top of the endv pieces, -There is also a transverse rod l5 between the end pieces at the forward side and bottom thereof, placed so low that the movable section can readily pass over it. As

concerns the main frame or stationary sec-1 tion the longest dimension is between the end pieces 11 and 12, and this dimension is called the length of the sofa. l L

AA, movable section is comprised by end frames composed preferably of fabricated structural steel having uipper .and lower yhorizontal beams 16 and 17, upright struts or posts 18 and 19 and diagonals 20, 21. There is one such frame at each side of the bed, that is close within the end pieces of the. stationary frame, and they are braced by cross' beams 22' and 23. They are, proor beams 30 at each end of the sofa, and a cross beam or brace 31 between these two arms, each'of saidarms being connected by a pivot pin 32 with/one of the frames. Connected to each of the beams 30 is a forwardly extending arm 321, which yis connected a pivot 33 with a link 34 which carries a pivot pin 35 passing through a short slot 36in the adjacent beam 28 of the forward swingingl section. The link-34 is duplicatedat each side 4of the bed frame. i0n the rear, end of the rear swinging section are studs 37 which preferably carry antifriction rolls lill@ entering guideways or grooves 38 extending vertically, or substantially so, on the inner sides of the end pieces of the stationary section.

Attached to the beam 31 by4 means of a hinge 39 is a frame 40 which provides the back for the sofa when the is closed up and is swung back out of the way when the bed is extended. This frame may be ulpholstered in any desired manner. Connected to the end members of the frame 40 are webs 41 to each of which is pivoted at 42 one end ofa lin-k 43, the other of which is pivoted at 44 to a block or cleat 45 attached to the inner side of the end piece 11.' Similar connection is made between the end piece 12 Aand the correspon-ding link at the o Aposite end of the sofa. vIn the upper si e of each cleat 45 is a notch 46 adapted to receive extensions 47 from the ends of the cross beam 29 of the forward swinging section when the bed is closed up.

The bars 28, 16, and 30 at the opposite sides of the movable section are adapted to be placed in line with one another, and when thus extended they form the side bars of a bed frame, there being one set of these bars at each side of the bed frame. They 'are preferably made of angle irons according to the common practicein bed construction, whereby inwardly directed flanges are provided for connecting the\ springs of an articulated sprin frame 48, which may be considered as typifying any of the connnon forms of bed spring.- It may be noted, however, that the sprin is made in two sections, that carried by t e forward swin 'ng part 28 being distinct from the other, w ich extends continuously from theforw-ard end of the middle section' to .the rear end of the rear swinging section 30. The bottom formed by this spring is adaptedto support' a mattress 49 which is made yeither in three Separate arts or in three sections hinged totwo thicknesses of mattress.

gether a jacent the pivots 26 and 32, respectively. One point to which I call articular attention is that the pivot 26 iso set above the plane of the spring'by a distance Vapproximately equal to the thickness of the stan-dard mattress. The purpose of so offsetting th1s pivot is, of course, to enable the forward section of the mattress t0 fold over upon the middle section, as indicated in Eig's. 2 and 5 so that when these two parts of the bed are thus folded up plenty of room will be left between the sections of the spring to contain The mechanical-problem involved in thus offsetting the pivot is solved by .extendin the posts 18 above the plane' of the be bottom, and formingsuch posts of angle irons ,placed with their forward flanges at the front and grolecting outwardly-as indicated at 18l in 1g. 3, and in providing pivot studs 26 of some part of the movable section an pose.

having a freely yielding bed bottom at the junction between the vmiddle and forward sections, as well as elsewhere, makes impossible the .insertion of a rigid brace between the bars 28 of the forward section at the end of such b-ars next to, the middle section, tooppose the tension of the spring, which tends to pull these bars together. This pull must be opposed by the post 18 and the pivot studs 26. The flanges 18a on the posts and the lar e size and greater strength of the studs, e cctively hold 'these beams apart.

The opposite side of the forward section from that on which the mattress rests is upholstered as indicated at 50 to make a finished seat -when the bed is folded. In order to follow out the operation of this simple mechanism when extending and folding up the bed, let us assume that the bed is folded as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The parts are all then in the position clearly shown in Fig. 2. To extend the bed the user (grasps pulls on it toward the front. I may provide handles or loops on any part of this structure which .may-be convenient for the pur- Force so applied causes the central section to be trundled forward bodily, carrying the pivot 32 of the rear section 30. The upper end of this section being held by the studs 37 in the guideway 38 is restrained and can move only downward, which has the effect of swin g the rear section about the pivot 32. inthis action the arms 321 acting upon the links 34 tend to swing the front section up and forwardly about the pivots 26. If the user takes hold of the beam 20 of this section and pulls on the same forwardly and upwardly at one time, he will cause the rear section to be swung backward through the agency of the links 34 andthe middle section to be propelled forward. At the same timethe descent ofthe part 31 on the rear swinging section causes the back frame to be turned about its pivot' connection-42 with thev links 43,' which being movable allows this pivot axis to be shifted while the turning effect takes place. The design of the parts is such that by the time the bed is entirely extended, the back frame has been -entirely reversed and'is substantially in a vertical plane at the head of the bed. The rear end of the rear swinging section is then su ported by the beam 13, in which are prefera ly mounted one or more springlifters each comprised of-a plunger 51 and aspring 52 beneath it in a socket in this beam. The function of the spring lifters isto raise the studsI 37 out of the plane of the bed'so as to facilitate closing the bed. r

The forward swinging section is supported in a horizontal plane'by the links 34 which are oiiset as shown at 53 so as to cross Lacasse the oars 16, such Aoffset parts resting on the bars 16 and acting as stops to arrest the forward section when in the horizontal position.

y To close up the bed the user first lifts up on the beam 29 of the front section, swinging the latter upward until the pivots 35 reach the end of the slots 36, whereupon the force applied through the links 34 on the arms 321 tend to lift the rear section. The force applied by the operator gradually changes its direction to a push toward the rear, being naturally diverted in that direction by the swinging of the front section. The swinging of the two end sections and the travel bodily at the central section all take place at the same time so that all arrive at once in the collapsed or folded position shown in Fig. 2, the back 40 being reversed and brought into position at the same time.

The reversible manner of mounting this back has an important advantage in the direction of compactness, simplicity, and eiliciency. When the bed is folded up the back frame is directly .in front of the rear section of the mattress, and rests against the same. As the back frame is preferably open, this part of the mattress-is in effect a part of the upholstery of the back and adds to the comfort of the sofa. Thenr when the bed is extended this back frame is moved out of the way so as not to interfere with the movements of the rear bed section, Some such movement being necessary because there is no space whatever between the back and the rear mattress section otherwise. Finally when the bed is fully extended the back frame is shifted slightly to the rear where it is exactly in the plane of the head of th bed and entirely out of the way of the occupant. I consider this means of providing a back when needed 4and disposing of it when not needed to be a valuable feature of the invention, particularly as it is accomplishedautomatically and without any care whatever on the part of the operator.

In the definition of the descriptive terms herein used I .would say that the entire lstructure comprises two main sections, 50

namely the relatively stationary section which is the outer frame of the sofa, and

the movable section which constitutes the bed. The latter in turn is composed of three principal subsidiary sections, that is, the central section which rests upon the Hoor and is trundled over it, and the frontand rear swinging sections whichare pivoted to the central section. A noteworthy feature is that the two main sections can be easily 'disconnected by removing the hinges 39 and withdrawing the studs 37 from the guideways 38. Then the main frame of the sofa respectively,

bed proper and the bed section can be disassembled and separately packed for shipment. This is an important practical consideration because of the difiiculty of securing the heavy and freely movable bed to the .bulky sofa frame in such a manner that it will not break loose.

While the outer frame or stationary section co-acts with the movable section in forming a sofa when the bed section is collapsed, and in supporting the head end of the bed section, I do not limit my claims entirely to this combination, as I include also Within the scope of the protection here sought, a folding bed having essentially the parts of the movable section or bed section of the combination, and without the sofa frame. The b'ed section alone may be converted from a bed to a sofa or couch, and

vice versa, and may be made of such proportions that its length when extended may be greater than its width, or the reverse'.

The terms divan, davenport, and

sofa as used herein are not intended to secure by Letcomprising a frame, and means connecting.

said back frame to the sofa fname and to the rear part of said rear bed section, respectively, for causing the sofa back to be reversed when the bed is extended and collapsed, respectively. v

2. A folding sofa bed comprising in combination a sofa frame, a bed rframe inclosed within said sofa frame and being movable bodily outtherefrom, a'bed section hinged to said bed frame and slidingly enga ed with said sofa frame at its opposite si es, so as to shift between substan tially upright and substantially horizontal positions, a sofa back hinged, when the bed is closed, at its upper .edge-to said bed section, and a pivot connection between an 1nt-ermediate part of said back and the sofal HERBERT F. SOWLE.- 

